Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to Germany key figure in boosting bilateral airline links
Last week, EVA Air launched flights to a new destination in Germany, the southern city of Munich. That means that now two airlines operate direct flights to two cities in the European country. One key figure behind this development was Taiwan’s representative to Germany, Shieh Jhy-wey, who has been working for years to deepen bilateral ties. Last year, at the height of the pandemic, Hsieh signed a bilateral agreement with the country, which has paved the way for even more direct connections in the future.
EVA Air has launched direct flights to Munich. To celebrate, the airline held an event at Germany’s largest city palace, demonstrating the significance of the hard-fought route.
Taiwan’s representative to Germany Shieh Jhy-wey worked behind the scenes in July last year at the height of the pandemic, signing an airlines services agreement with Germany on behalf of Taiwan.
Shieh Jhy-wey
Representative to Germany
I worked on this agreement since 2016, for four or five years. Of course, there were a lot of issues that arose, which we can’t talk to the public about. Over the course of six years I signed 12 different agreements. This is a guarantee of quality from Taiwan itself to Germany’s officials, and to the German public.
Unlike past agreements signed between private companies, the Taipei-Munich flight route was worked out between government officials from both sides.
In the past, there were only seven passenger flights weekly to Germany, which flew to Frankfurt and were operated by China Airlines. Now, in addition to the four new weekly passenger flights to Munich, the number of weekly cargo flights between the two countries will increase from three to five.
Shieh Jhy-wey
Representative to Germany
This was all pre-planned when we signed the agreement. If there is a nonstop flow of passengers, and the flights don’t meet demand, then we could extend it to one flight daily.
There are 150,000 travelers annually going between Taiwan and Germany. One German tourism operator says there is a chance this number could go up in the future.
Tourism operator
There’s a great opportunity now for southern Germans to fly directly to Taipei, and if they are to come, I would suggest that you will have an increase of 10, 15, 20% per year.
With direct flights between Taiwan and Germany increasing, it is clear that bilateral relations between the two countries are improving.
2022-11-07
